Affective information processing and the assessment of anxiety

A conceptualization of anxiety as comprising three loosely coupled response systems of overt behavior, verbal report, and physiological activation has proven useful in clinical and theoretical work. With this framework as a starting point, an information-processing approach to the study of emotion is described. Emotions are conceived as affective programs within the brain, with information coded as propositions organized into associative networks. Affective expression results when such a network is accessed and processed, which can occur when a sufficient number of propositions are activated by environmental stimuli and/or internal associations. It is hypothesized that information about the expressive physiology is an integral component of the associative structure, and that processing of the network accordingly results in measurable psychophysiological response. Data from studies of emotional imagery, as well as other areas of research, are reviewed in support of these theories. The utility of this approach for the assessment of anxiety disorders is discussed, and results of clinical studies are presented to suggest that individual differences in accessing and processing emotional information may bear significant implications for prognosis and treatment selection. It is speculated that differences among the anxiety disorders could be interpreted in terms of the degree of cognitive organization of the network, leading to potential refinement of current diagnostic categories. In conclusion, cognitive psychology paradigms are discussed in terms of their application to the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders.The authors' research is supported in part by NIMH Grant MH 37757. Portions of this paper were presented at the NIMH Conference on Anxiety, Tuxedo, NY, September 1983. Several of its themes were developed there at more length, and this material may be found in the publication of the conference proceedings (Tuma & Maser, 1985).     

Further experiments on the perception of growth in three dimensions

Mark and Todd (1983) reported an experiment in which the cardioidal strain transformation was extended to three dimensions and applied to a three-dimensional (3-D) representation of the head of a 15-year-old girl in a direction that made the transformed head appear younger to the vast majority of their subjects. The experiments reported here extend this research in order to examine whether subjects are indeed detecting cardioidal strain in three dimensions, rather than detecting changes in head slant or making 2-D comparisons of the shape of the occluding contour. Three-dimensional surfaces were obtained by measuring a real head manually (Experiment 1) and with a laser scanner (Experiment 2), and transformed to different age levels using the 3-D strain transformation described by Mark and Todd (1983). There were no statistically significant differences in the accuracy with which relative age judgments could be made in response to pairs of profiles, pairs of 3/4 views, or pairs of mixed views (profile plus 3/4 view), suggesting that subjects can indeed extract the cardioidal strain level of the head in three dimensions. However, an additional effect that emerged in these studies was that judgments were crucially affected by the instructions given to subjects, which suggests that factors other than cardioidal strain are important in making judgments about rich data structures.     

A case against behavior modification in the ‘ordinary’ classroom

It is argued that while behavior modification techniques have proved tremendously valuable in the teaching of problem learners, there are good grounds for resisting the use of these same procedures on a casual basis with normal children in ordinary classrooms. Aside from questioning the necessity of setting up a behavioral classroom for the majority of children, it is pointed out that (a) powerful reinforcers can limit the range of behaviors in which a child will engage, and (b) in some circumstances extrinsic rewards may undermine a child's willingness to become involved in some activities.     

Social networks and adult social identities: Profiles and correlates of support and rejection

The growth of interest in social networks has underscored the need for integrative analyses of network dimensions. A three-pronged strategy to achieve this objective was pursued in a study of 261 married women nurses. First, network variables related to important adult social identities were differentiated. Factor analyses revealed four network interaction factors: work support, work rejection, general support, and general rejection. An additional factor analysis differentiated work associates from nonwork network members. Second, cluster analysis of these factor scores identified five different network profiles. The profiles differed in the importance of the woman's work to her nonwork ties as well as the frequency and pattern of different positive and negative interactions. Third, individuals with these contrasting network profiles differed on levels of life satisfaction and psychological symptomatology. The discussion emphasizes social network differences within the broader context of the ecology of human development.     

Stereotyped connotations of masculine and feminine names

This study was designed to provide a basis to understand better antifeminine stereotyped attitudes that occur in association with a stimulus no more informative about a person than her first name. College students, mostly freshmen and sophomores, ascribed connotative meanings to common and uncommon masculine and feminine first names while imagining either real or ideal persons. The results from 48 subjects disclosed that the semantic dimension of potency (e.g., strength and bravery) is likely to be a fundamentally important connotation associated more with masculine names than with feminine names. Two findings very much supported this conclusion. Thus, the potency dimension was the only one of five dimensions of semantic meaning that: (a) yielded any masculine-feminine difference in the ideal condition, and (b) showed a disfavorable connotation for feminine names in comparison to masculine names in either the real or ideal condition.